Feed dragons and solve equations – DragonBox 12+ app

I think all parents want to find quality apps and games for their child that will engage them and help them learn in a fun way. There are thousands of websites and apps that promise to do just that. However in my experience many of them turn out to be simply drills disguised as games or they don’t provide enough information for a child to really grasp the concepts.

Excellent, engaging apps are not rare, but they are the exception. Today I’m excited to share our experience with DragonBox educational apps.

I recieved this product for free in exchange for a review. I was also compensated for my time. All opinions are my own and I was not required to provide a positive review.

We were specifically asked to review the DragonBox 12+ app, but we have experience with their other two products as well. The whole line of DragonBox apps and website games are built to help kids understand algebra and geometry concepts through puzzle levels.

The DragonBox 12+ app is for older students (I would say middle school) and it teaches how to solve algebra equations.

But kids don’t know that is what they are doing at first! The app is set up with icons that appear on either side of the game board.

DragonBox presents the player with whimsical icons that must be manipulated until the ‘Dragonbox’, representing the unknown variable, is isolated on one side of the game board. Through the course of play, these icons are gradually replaced with numbers and variables until the player is solving real equations. The rules of variable manipulation are discovered through experimentation. . .

The DragonBox 12+ (aka DragonBox 2) app is a more challenging version of DragonBox 5+. It contains more levels and progresses faster from icons to algebraic variables. There are 10 “chapters” and each chapter contains 20 puzzles to solve. As you solve the puzzles you get to watch the chapter’s dragon hatch and grow into an adult!

Each level adds new concepts like negative and positive values, fractions, and order of operations.

Why we love DragonBox apps for homeschooling

Unlike some math games that simply superimpose problems onto a simple racing or shooting game, DragonBox Algebra succeeds in integrating the concepts right into the puzzles.

Visually and kinesthetically appealing

The graphics on these apps are top-notch. Kids get to interact with the game and manipulate the variables. This is great for those learners who need some visual representation of the concepts.

Quality puzzles

It’s not an “educational app”. It’s a fun game that plays much like the popular puzzles games in the app store. You also get multiple tries so you can learn by experimentation.

Supplemental resources available

The DragonBox 12+ app has a homeschool guide, teacher’s manual, and worksheets available to download for free. The homeschool guide is a great tool to help you effectively use this app as part of your math curriculum.

Giveaway

DragonBox App is giving away a total of 100 people access to the web-based versions of the algebra and geometry apps. (No mobile device is necessary.) This is valid for anyone in the world! Just enter your information in the widget below.